I recently murdered a guard outside Riften because he mentioned my furry ears. As a Khajit assassin, I only have a certain amount of tolerance to racist riff raff.

I slit his throat, drank his mead, then proceded to do the T-bag.

I was especially careful to make sure no one saw me, but alas, a bounty appeared on my head. I looked around and saw nothing but a horse standing there, all innocent like. I proceded to make dog food out of it, but at this point it was too late and the bounty remained.

Now this begs the question, did the horse act as a witness and somehow manage to alert Riften about my acts of justice, or did someone else see me?

I remember this funny quote from an interview with Todd Howard before the game released where he talked about this bug in which the chickens were reporting crimes to the guards. That was fixed, but it would be funny if this was another similar bug left over...
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OrioNDec 15 '11 at 17:59

In the yogscast playthrough, in one of the early videos they get a bounty for killing a chicken that was immediately removed as it was the only witness to its own death. (brain bender I know)
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Kenneth PoseyDec 15 '11 at 20:06

2

@KortPleco I wish the game was realistic enough that the witness had to make it to a guard or within earshot of one before a crime could be reported. That would make this a lot more interesting, could also add in the possibility of corrupt citizens accepting a bribe and you not losing all your stolen gear.
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MaskedPlantDec 15 '11 at 20:37

1 Answer
1

For this answer I decided to test this. I rode up to Riften, hopped off my horse, crouched down saved and shot a guard. And I got a bounty. So I loaded, shot my horse and then shot the guard and did not get a bounty.